Libraries serve three roles in the learning process (Marchionini 1995, 66). First, they play a practical role in sharing valuable resources. Although this is a general expectation of users, the digital library revolutionizes this sharing role by allowing people to access materials simultaneously regardless of their physical location. Second, libraries serve a cultural role in preserving and organizing artifacts and ideas. In this sense, libraries serve as reservoirs of information sources for the education of generations. Third, libraries serve a social and intellectual role by bringing people and ideas together. Digital libraries offer diverse information resources extending beyond the physical space shared by groups of learners. In theory, digital libraries bring together people with different learning missions.

Studies related to learning methodologies and techniques have been conducted for centuries, including those done by philosophers and educators like Socrates. Learning is a process of knowledge construction in which the learner carries out many activities (Lorenzen 2001; Fitzgerald 1998). Active learning can be described as the ability of learners to carry out those activities effectively and efficiently while incorporating them into a process of their own education.